Affordable SmallPlus, CALL TO PRAYER (Muslim Birth) Limited Ed 30 Photograph

‘Call to Prayer’ from award-winning fine art series Birth Undisturbed by Natalie Lennard, in Affordable SmallPlus Edition on POD Satin Paper at 48 x 64cm, limited to 30 +2AP. Artwork comes printed with 2cm border in addition to size stated, accompanied with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Every image in Birth Undisturbed is Giclee printed with OEM 70+ year archival inks. The series is shot on world-class 100 megapixel Phase One IQ3 medium format to provide rich impeccable quality with exceptional detail on both screen and print. ____ "Whether we cut the umbilical cord immediately or not changes everything about the way respiration comes to the baby, even conditions the baby's taste for life." (Frederick Leboyer.) In the first moment this baby enters the world, the Adhan, Muslim call for prayer, is whispered by the father into the right ear. When done at the first possible moment, before examination or words of hospital staff, it follows the Islamic principle that the very first words the baby hears be that of the Adhan. Done before the cord is cut, it also allows that scientific physiology is honoured and full blood runs course to the infant till the cord is white and drained. In this scene recreating a Pakistani Muslim family birthing in a NHS hospital in Northern England, the Qu'ran plays on a speaker. There is bottled zam-zam (holy water from the Gaba). A small coiled twig, called the Flower of Maryam, opens and blooms in water through the labour, a visualisation used by women in the Middle East.  Accompanying film for ‘Call to Prayer’ was selected by Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2020.